Wheatfield hires new e-waste recycler

WHEATFIELD – The Town Board has voted to hire a new electronics recycling company, so the town can continue to receive some payments for its e-waste.

Sunnking of Brockport will pay the town 4 cents per pound of electronics dropped off for recycling, Town Attorney Robert J. O’Toole said Monday.

However, there is an exception to that; the company will not pay anything for “CRT waste.” That refers to cathode ray tubes, which used to produce the pictures on most TV sets and computer monitors. The flat-screen revolution has quickly relegated tube TVs to the discard pile – literally.

They are being thrown away in massive quantities, and the resulting glut has caused a depression in the market for e-waste materials.

Regional Computer Recycling and Recovery, the town’s former hauler, was paying the town 6 cents a pound, Supervisor Robert B. Cliffe said.

“They sent us a notice adjusting the contract going forward: They would still pick up our stuff, but they wouldn’t pay us for it,” he said. “And they added some rules and regulations about how they want things packaged, certain materials they don’t want and would have to charge us to handle. Sunnking, being a new player on the block, is still willing to pay us something for our materials. It’s not a lot. … It’ll be a couple thousand dollars a year without an additional charge.”

The Town of Lockport made a similar move in October, replacing RCR&R with Sunnking after the former firm said it would no longer collect CRTs.

In another matter Monday, the board set a Jan. 27 public hearing on a zoning amendment that would limit developers to erect fewer buildings in planned unit developments.

O’Toole said the concept of limiting density was proposed by the Planning Board and didn’t pertain to any specific project.

The board did not act on a $20,000-a-year contract renewal with the SPCA of Niagara for dog-control services. Cliffe said the town is still considering the idea of placing a dog-control officer on its payroll, as it did until a few years ago.

Also put off until Dec. 16 was a vote to create a local development corporation to make loans to businesses in the town. Cliffe said that was because no one had been chosen yet for the proposed corporation’s seven-member governing board.

A proposed contract amendment with the Teamsters Union, which represents some town employees, also was removed from the agenda. The provision is being negotiated, Cliffe said.

It would allow union members who become department heads or deputy department heads to continue to accumulate seniority in the union and would guarantee a return to a unionized job if the town decides to make a change in the supervisory position.

O’Toole said that provision could apply to Deputy Recreation Director Michael Ranalli, who is the acting department head because of Edward Sturgeon’s suspension, and to Deputy Highway Superintendent Gregory Martin.